Snow Angels
Snow Angels is the nineteenth episode of season one, as well as the nineteenth episode of the series. It was written by Jason Tracey, and directed by Andrew Bernstein. It premiered on April 4, 2013. Storyline Plot synopsis Sherlock and Joan try to prevent a robbery from one of the largest cash vaults in the country during the middle of a Nor'easter. Meanwhile, Sherlock tries to help a transgender woman who is recovering from her latest break-up. Part One At the Flatiron, a security guard, Frank Dempster, is reading a book while listening to a weather report on the radio, warning of a major blizzard heading for Manhattan. Hearing a woman whimpering, he stands and sees a blond woman lying outside the door, pleading for help, saying she has been mugged. As soon as he opens the door and helps her to her feet, however, she jams a pistol into his ribs and tells him to open the door for her two accomplices. He grabs for the gun at his belt, and she shoots him in the chest. After opening the door herself, she and her two accomplices drag the body behind his desk and then head upstairs. But Dempster isn't quite dead, and manages to draw his gun and fire one shot at the thieves' backs. At The Brownstone, Joan Watson comes back from a shopping trip for emergency supplies, and is surprised to see a woman, Ms. Hudson, standing in the living room, clearly distressed. Watson asks how they can help her, and Ms. Hudson hurriedly explains that she is not a client, she is a friend of Sherlock's who needs somewhere to stay, temporarily. Watson is disoriented, but offers the woman a cup of tea, and Ms. Hudson (who has expensive tastes) asks for White Darjeeling. In the kitchen, Sherlock is measuring out his daily spoonful of cod liver oil, when Watson enters and demands the full story. Sherlock explains that he used Ms. Hudson as a consultant back in London - she has "an Oxford don's command of ancient Greek and Latin", which is all the more remarkable considering she is entirely self-taught - but her personal life is somewhat complex. She frequently finds herself the "muse" of several powerful, wealthy and creative men, who profess that they can't live without her, but find it all too difficult to actually include her in their lives. Case in point, her latest lover just turned her out of the apartment he was renting for her, at the insistence of his wife. Sherlock asks whether he was supposed to turn Ms. Hudson away on the eve of a snowstorm, and Watson says, of course not, but as his housemate Watson is entitled to a little more advance notice. This debate is interrupted by a call from Captain Gregson. At the Flatiron, Gregson and Detective Bell are examining the scene of the crime, which Holmes begins to reconstruct: the entry of the thieves, the shooting of Mr. Dempster... then, per his new habit, turns it over to Watson. After a few moments of thought, Watson deduces that Dempster wasn't dead, fired one round that hit one of the thieves in the abdomen, and the thieves came back and finished him off with a single shot to the head. Holmes asks what they were there to steal, and Bell shows them photos of a new cell phone model that was supposed to go on sale at midnight. The thieves took the floor models and about two hundred from the storage room. Holmes finds a strand of hair from a cheap blonde wig and guesses that at least one of the thieves was a woman, and there had to have been at least three, since a man or woman suffering from a gut shot could not be expected to have hefted that many boxes. Then Holmes surprises Gregson and Bell by asking why he is there - "with all due respect to Mr. Dempster", the crime is fairly prosaic and should be easy to solve. Then the lights go out as the storm hits, and Holmes brightly says that solving this murder "in the Stone Age" should add a level of interest. Part Two At the precinct, Gregson introduces an assembly of sergeants and detectives to Denise Castor, a supervisor from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), who has been sent to coordinate the authorities' response to the storm. She informs the assembly that the power is out and will stay out for the duration of the storm, and Gregson starts to brief the sergeants on their individual assignments. In a corner of the squad room, Watson asks why Holmes is browsing Instagram on his phone, while charging it from a power outlet, when the entire precinct is running on a backup generator. Holmes says this is part of their investigation, and shows her and Bell a triumphant "gram" from someone who just bought one of the new phones, a full day ahead of their scheduled release. From a photo of the box, Holmes can deduce where it was taken. Holmes and Watson interview Private Maggio, a street person who is selling the phones for $75 each to a line of eager buyers, assuring them that they are the genuine article. Holmes asks for a few minutes alone with Private Maggio to ask about the sale of stolen property. Maggio swears that he didn't steal the phones, he found them: he was waiting behind a bakery that gives him their day-old goods, when he heard someone throw a heavy box into a dumpster. He saw a couple of white men running away from the dumpster, where he found the phones. Holmes gives Private Maggio some money to get a room and wait out the storm, while advising him that his price is too low, and he can get much more for the phones. As they walk away, Watson asks in surprise why he is leaving the phones. Holmes says the thieves didn't care about the phones, so why should they? The theft of the phones was obviously a cover for something else, and they need to get back to the Flatiron right away. At the Flatiron, Holmes deduces that the thieves used Mr. Dempster's key card to call the elevator to one of the locked floors. He also finds scratches on the key hole of a door to an architectural firm, which must have been picked by a woman with shaky hands (understandable after she was shot in the gut). As Watson starts to try her own hand at picking the lock, it is yanked open by an employee, who has been camping out there to get some work done. Examining the office, Holmes finds a drawer where a series of blueprints were stolen, and asks the employee to produce the duplicates. Appearances Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes Lucy Liu as Joan Watson Jon Michael Hill as Detective Marcus Bell Aidan Quinn as Captain Tommy Gregson Jill Flint as Elle Bastien Becky Ann Baker as Pam Frank Wood as EROC Supervisor Candis Cayne as Ms. Hudson Karl Miller as Squatter Bill Buell as Private Maggio Howard McGillin as Davis Renkin Andy Grotelueschen as Nurse Vince Christina Rouner as Denise Castor Curt Bouril as FRP #1 Scott Aiello as Uniform #1 Daniel Loeser as Uniform #2 Slate Holmgren as Uniform #3 Samuel Smith as EMT #1 Nick Sullivan as Frank Dempster Lonnie Quinn as TV Reporter Mark Elliot Wilson as Joseph Leseur Poll What did you think of Snow Angels? Awesome Good OK Poor Terrible Music *''Penny'' by Hanni El Khatib is playing at the end of the episode. Trivia *The opening scene was shot at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.Elementary Writers (@ELEMENTARStaff). "The opening scene was shot at the excellent John Jay School of Criminal Justice. If a murder really happened there, they’d solve it quickly." April 5, 2012. *Jonny Lee Miller improvised Sherlock giving the homeless man cash so that he could find shelter.Elementary Writers (@ELEMENTARStaff). "JT: @jonnyjlm improvised the bit about handing some cash to the homeless veteran. He knows Sherlock’s got a heart in there somewhere." April 5, 2013. *Sherlock tells Joan that Detective Bell played Sky Masterson in his high school production of Guys and Dolls. This biographical detail is in fact true of Jon Michael Hill.Elementary Writers (@ELEMENTARStaff). "JT: Jon Michael Hill really was Sky Masterson in his high school’s production of Guys and Dolls. I didn’t know that when I wrote the line." April 5, 2013. *Sherlock's quote, "Life is infinitely stranger than anything the mind of man could invent" is taken directly from Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "A Case of Identity." Photos Every photo of Snow Angels on this wiki can be seen here. Behind the scenes 001 Snow Angels behind the scenes photo.png|Answers from Tuesday's quiz! You'll see that the "dodgy egg" line wasn't in the script: it was an improv from Jonny.|link=https://twitter.com/ELEMENTARYStaff/status/380377105143320576/ Videos Sneak peeks References Category:Episodes Category:Season 1 episodes Category:Season one Category:Aired episodes